The Rain Heron (The Age Book of the Year 2021)

Author(s): Robbie Arnott

Fiction | Tasmanian Fiction

Ren lives alone on the remote frontier of a country devastated by a coup. High on the forested slopes, she survives by hunting and trading--and forgetting. But when a young soldier comes to the mountains in search of a local myth, Ren is inexorably drawn into her impossible mission.


As their lives entwine, unravel and erupt--as myths merge with reality--both Ren and the soldier are forced to confront what they regret, what they love, and what they fear.


The Rain Heron is the dizzying, dazzling new novel from the author of Flames.

FULLERS REVIEW  ANNE


The most anticipated book of 2020 (especially for Tasmanian booksellers). Like Flames, Robbie’s second novel delves into landscapes real and imaginary, while deftly playing with prose and form so you are never sure where the story is going to take you next or exactly what kind of a novel it is.


The Rain Heron starts off like a lyrical, environment/climate-minded fable with the beautiful and terrifying bird at its heart. The story becomes richer as our guide, Ren a wild woman hermit, takes us deeper into mountain territory and myth. I was loving this journey.


And then I reached part two and basically fell off my chair. We are shifted to a different, distantly connected, landscape. Threads are drawn across the terrain and narrative, tethering the characters and stirring up further complexity to the fable’s underlying mythology. I will not say anything else because you should discover it for yourself. 

$29.99 AUD

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Product Information

Robbie Arnott was a 2019 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist and won the Margaret Scott Prize in the 2019 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prizes. His widely acclaimed debut, Flames (2018), was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, a New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award, a Queensland Literary Award, the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and Not the Booker Prize. He lives in Hobart.

General Fields

  • : 9781922268778
  • : Text Publishing Company
  • : Text Publishing Company
  • : 0.432
  • : December 2019
  • : ---length:- '23.4'width:- '15.3'units:- Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Robbie Arnott
  • : Paperback
  • : 272